Kanye West

All this is saying is, OK I see now, the ‘hood does not quite want Shirley Bassey yet, so let me still give them this. Crack Music was made after Diamonds. After black people were like, ‘I don’t know about this one.’ It was like me reaching too high for the cookie jar.

[Trump] will do the things that are necessary to make that happen because he’s got an ego like all the rest of us, and he wants to be the greatest president, and he knows that he can’t be the greatest president without the acceptance of the black community. So it’s something he’s gonna work towards, but we’re gonna have to speak to him.

Even when I tweeted that I was in debt, that gave me power.

I’m a blowfish. I’m not a shark, I’m a blowfish. So that perfect example about me hitting my head, it’s like a blowfish. I wasn’t coming out of my house going to a paparazzi’s house to attack them. I’m defending my family in front of my own house. I’m defending my name as someone’s screaming something negative at me. That’s a blowfish. People have me pinned as a shark or a predator in some way, and in no way am I that. I wouldn’t want to hurt anyone. I want to defend people. I want to help people.

I used to always feel awkward around a lot of rappers. Other people came from hustling and all that. Sometimes it was harder to relate. People would look down on me for the way I dressed, because my raps weren’t really that good – it was like, ‘Just shut up and do beats.’

That one by one by one we can defuse this nuclear bomb of hate that we’re in as a society by thinking of everyone as our family.

Among the things you can give and still keep are your word, a smile, and a grateful heart.

Creativity and control can go hand in hand.

The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else.

You will have failures in your life, but it is what you do during those valleys that will determine the heights of your peaks.

How you see the future is much more important than what happened in your past.

Most people consider me an optimist because I laughingly state that I would take my last two dollars and buy a money belt.

Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.

Never stop fighting for what you believe in and for the people who care about you.

With integrity, you have nothing to fear, since you have nothing to hide. With integrity, you will do the right thing, so you will have no guilt.

Sometimes Tina Fey is like a very talented bungee-jumping expert. All it takes Tina to softly say, ‘We can do this, right?’ and I suddenly feel like I can jump off a bridge.

Courage is on display every day, and only the courageous wring the most out of life.

Fear is the great extinguisher of dreams… Conversely, it can be your best mentor and source of motivation.

You already have every characteristic necessary for success if you recognize, claim, develop and use them.

For 24 years of my adult life, by choice I weighed well over 200 pounds. I say ‘by choice’ because I have never ‘accidentally’ eaten anything, so when I choose to eat too much, I have chosen to weigh too much.

What distinguishes us from one another is our dreams, and what we do to make them come about.